You can go on about Spartan society all you want, but that is completely irrelevant. The Spartans were from another time. If you want to compare the world today to the world then, you’re simply lowering the bar.
You’re saying cheating is positive because it teaches street skills. Unfortunately, those street skills do not benefit society. People who attain street skills through cheating obviously have low ethics and are selfish. They want to succeed in life, but they do not wish to put forth the effort.
How does this effect society?
Take a doctor, for example, who cheated his way through college. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but he was sure good at cheating. Would you want to see this doctor and be his patient? Sure, if you wanted to be misdiagnosed, which could lead to heavy consequences. But the majority of us don’t want to put our lives in jeopardy. Cheating is therefore not regarded as warrior-like training, but a selfish (and sometimes harmful) action.
Being a “skilled thief” only benefits the thief. Likewise, cheating only benefits the cheater. So for those who work diligently and actually DESERVE recognition, cheaters possess no deeming qualities. Since when has ANY society EVER promoted individual success at the cost of society?
“The ability to successfully cheat might mean more to some that the ability to recite some sort of esoteric knowledge.”
To some? To a very small percentage. And who are you to judge education nowadays as reciting esoteric knowledge? You may not think students actually learn anymore, but that doesn’t mean cheating is better. It’s actually lower. If you think reciting knowledge is bad, how about not even being able to do that?
Take your argument back to the days of the Spartans. It has no use here.
“...You’re saying cheating is positive because it teaches street skills...”
I’m saying the exact opposite. I said that certain societies/parents think that way. I’m a Southerner and personally feel that cheaters should be tarred and feathered.
Technology advances but human nature stays the same. Chattel slavery is less common today but it has been replaced by governments owning people instead of people owning people.
Find me more beautiful man-made structures in America today than were found on the Acropolis. It is quite difficult to do.